Church History Museum Announces New Online Exhibit, “From Plates to Pages”

Contributed By the Church News

25 October 2016

Church History Museum director Alan Johnson hopes that the artwork depicted in their new online exhibit will remind viewers of the efforts that went into the creation and preservation of the records we now know as the Book of Mormon.

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The Church History Museum launched a new online exhibit titled From Plates to Pages: Writing and Reading the Book of Mormon today.

The exhibit, available on the museum’s website, is the final installment of a 2016 series intended to enrich viewers’ personal study of the Book of Mormon with selections of artwork from the Church History Museum art collection.

The artwork in the exhibit depicts efforts of Book of Mormon prophets to keep and preserve a record of the history and faith of their people and shows how that record influences the lives of people today. The first section calls attention to “the records” kept on metal plates by ancient prophets and brought forth out of the ground in the 1820s by Joseph Smith.

The artwork in the next section shows the record on printed pages “in our hands,” making a spiritual impact on individuals and families who read it. Taken collectively, the exhibit conveys a sense of the great desires of ancient prophets to preserve this record for our day, “that [we] may know … and also … believe the gospel of Jesus Christ” (Mormon 3:20–21).

“We hope these images will help each of us remember the efforts of those that came before who recorded their experiences and testimonies,” said Church History Museum director Alan Johnson. “Likewise, we are forever grateful to those who helped bring these records forward in our day so that through our own study of them, we can come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.”